From her voice to her fingertips, Lorde's whirlwind Grammys appearance has captured global attention.

Seventeen-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor won Grammy awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year, becoming the first New Zealander to take those awards and the youngest Kiwi to win at the industry's most prestigious awards.

"The teenage New Zealander has made an appealing habit lately of jolting awards shows with her seriousness of purpose, and here she did it again, thrillingly stretching out the negative space in a tune about feeling disconnected from the ambition and glamour enshrined in so many pop hits."

The Hollywood Gossip praised her "show-stopping vocals" on the stripped-down version of the song. "Donning uncharacteristically straight hair, a black-and-white pantsuit and black nails, Lorde painstakingly built up to the crescendo of the radio version," it reported.

"Tremendous talent aside, she also looked every bit her age, with the normal level of teenage awkwardness, disdain and amusement on the podium."